Category Archives: Nostalgia

Dan takes us on a South Pacific Tour!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who writes:

In years gone by, many Pacific island nations relied on shortwave radio to air their programs across the vast expanses of ocean. These included countries such as Kiribati, Tahiti, Fiji, Saipan, New Caledonia, the Marshall Islands, Cook Islands, and Papua New Guinea. There are recent reports that the latter is seriously looking at a return to shortwave by 2030. https://swling.com/blog/2025/05/papua-new-guinea-plans-shortwave-comeback-by-2030/ Even in Hawaii, the licence of World Harvest Radio KWHR expired in 2009.

While the above nations can no longer be found on shortwave, a handful of other stations are still operating in 2025 and make excellent DX targets for listeners around the world. If you prefer optimal quality reception, choose to listen through a remote SDR closer to the transmitter site.

Click on the various links below to hear samples of audio from some of the remaining broadcasters located in the South Pacific region.

Radio New Zealand 

Audio Player Audio Player

Radio Vanuatu

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Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC)

Audio Player

T8WH Hope Radio (Palau)

Audio Player Audio Player

KSDA Adventist World Radio (Guam)

Audio Player Audio Player

Trans World Radio (Guam)

Note: this one is scheduled for closure by the end of October 2025

Audio Player Audio Player

Sit back, relax and enjoy the tour!

73

Dan Greenall, Ontario, Canada

This is wonderful! Thank you for taking us on the tour, Dan! We always appreciate your recordings, QSLs, and insights!

Paul’s Treasure Trove of 1980s Shortwave Interval Signals and Idents

I recently received a fascinating message from long-time SWLing Post reader Paul, who has graciously shared a remarkable collection of shortwave radio recordings he made from his home near London in the 1980s. Here’s what he wrote:

Hi Thomas,
I have been following your excellent blog for many years. I have noticed that sometimes you feature archive recordings. I have some that might interest you.

During the 1980s I was listening to shortwave radio from my home near London, in the south east of England. I had a cassette recorder connected to the receiver and taped anything interesting that caught my ear. Little did I know that 40 years later the majority of these stations would have disappeared and I would have the opportunity to share these recordings with the world.

I have put together a collection of five audio files of recordings from many of these international shortwave broadcasters, consisting of IDs and interval signals. The majority of these recordings are in English. I’ve grouped the files geographically:

      • Western Europe
      • Eastern Europe and the USSR
      • Africa and the Middle East
      • Asia and the Pacific
      • The Americas

I have uploaded these files to the Internet Archive, under the user name Shortwave Memories.

There are no dates or frequencies but the recordings were made during the 1980s, the majority during the first half of the decade.

I hope you and your readers find this interesting. I certainly enjoy listening to these recordings and a reminder of how shortwave used to sound.

Best regards,
Paul

Listen to the Recordings

Paul has organized his recordings by region. You can stream them directly from the Internet Archive or download them to enjoy offline: https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_memories

I’ll also embed the audio players below with Paul’s notes:

Western Europe

Audio Player

AUSTRIA: Radio Austria International (0)
CYPRUS: Cyprus Broadcasting Company (1.40)
DENMARK: Radio Denmark (3.09)
FINLAND: Radio Finland (4.29)
FRANCE: Radio France Internationale (5.30)
GERMANY (WEST): Deutsche Welle (6.30)
GREECE: Voice of Greece (7.53)
ITALY: RAI (9.24)
MALTA: Radio Mediterranean (11.00)
NETHERLANDS: Radio Netherlands (12.21)
NORWAY: Radio Norway (13.34)
PORTUGAL: Radio Portugal (15.34)
SPAIN: Spanish Foreign Radio (16.32)
SWEDEN: Radio Sweden (18.17)
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Radio International (19.53)
Red Cross Broadcasting Service (20.38)
UNITED KINGDOM: BBC World Service (21.49)


Eastern Europe and the USSR

Audio Player

ALBANIA: Radio Tirana (0)
BELARUS: Radio Minsk (1.18)
BULGARIA: Radio Sofia (1.41)
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Radio Prague (2.29)
ESTONIA: Radio Tallin (2.50)
GERMANY (EAST): Radio Berlin Int (3.49)
HUNGARY: Radio Budapest (5.22)
LATVIA: Radio Riga (6.31)
LITHUANIA: Radio Vilnius (7.14)
POLAND: Radio Polonia (8.30)
ROMANIA: Radio Bucharest (9.37)
UKRAINE: Radio Kiev (10.41)
USSR: Radio Moscow World Service (12.17)
Radio Station Peace & Progress (13.35)
Radio Station Rodina (13.59)
YUGOSLAVIA: Radio Yugoslavia (14.21)


The Americas

Audio Player

Bonaire: Trans World Radio (3.31)
Brazil: Radio Nacional do Brasil (4.32)
Canada: Radio Canada Int (6.58)
Chile: Voice of Chile (8.48)
Colombia: Radio Nacional (11.06)
Radio Sutatenza (12.00)
Cuba: Radio Havana (12.48)
Dominican Republic: La Voz del CID (14.20)
Radio Clarin (15.01)
Ecuador: HCJB (15.43)
Grenada: Radio Free Grenada (17.36)
Nicaragua: Voice of Nicaragua (18.42)
USA: Voice of America (19.54)
Radio Earth (20.33)
KCBI (21.39)
WHRI (22.13)
WRNO (22.38)
WYFR (22.49)
Venezuela: Radio Turismo (23.22)
Radio Tachira (24.06)
YVTO (24.41)


Asia and the Pacific

Audio Player

Afghanistan: Radio Afghanistan (0)
Australia: Radio Australia (1.55)
Bangladesh: Radio Bangladesh (3.18)
China: Radio Peking (4.23)
India: All India Radio (6.16)
Japan: Radio Japan (7.29)
Korea (North): Radio Pyongyang (9.02)
Korea (South): Radio Korea (12.26)
Malaysia: Voice of Malaysia (14.22)
New Zealand: Radio New Zealand (15.49)
Pakistan: Radio Pakistan (16.13)
Saipan: KFBS & KYOI (16.44)
Taiwan: Voice of the Free China (18.14)
Tajikistan: Radio Dushanbe (19.01)
Uzbekistan: Radio Tashkent (19.22)
Vietnam: Voice of Vietnam (20.16)


Africa and the Middle East

Audio Player

ALGERIA: Radio Algiers (0)
EGYPT: Radio Cairo (1.03)
IRAN: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2.33)
IRAQ: Radio Baghdad (4.17)
ISRAEL: Kol Israel (6.33)
KUWAIT: Radio Kuwait (8.00)
LEBANON: Voice of Lebanon (9.29)
LIBYA: Radio Jamariyah (10.18)
NIGERIA: Radio Nigeria (12.15)
QATAR: Qatar Broadcasting Service (13.53)
SAUDI ARABIA: Broadcasting Service of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (14.21)
SOUTH AFRICA: Radio RSA (15.45)
SYRIA: Radio Damascus (17.37)
TURKEY: Voice of Turkey (18.40)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: UAE Radio (19.50)


Many Thanks to Paul!

A huge thank you to Paul for not only preserving these recordings, but also for taking the time to digitize and share them publicly. This is a nostalgic treat for many of us and a valuable reference for future generations of listeners.

If any readers have similar recordings they’d like to share, feel free to reach out. I’m always happy to help preserve and feature them on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

— Thomas

Bob’s Radio Corner: The Last Radio I Really Needed

My original PL-660 has high mileage but still
has its original kick stand and whip antenna.

The Last Radio I Really Needed

By Bob Colegrove

Like most folks, I have a favorite radio.  My favorite radio is the one I happen to be listening to at the time.  Each radio has its own attractions.  The fact that one particular radio is turned on indicates that, at least for the moment, it is my favorite.

I also have a special radio.  It is special because, ever since I bought it, there has never been a compelling reason to buy another radio.  That said, there is no accounting for irrational behavior which has subsequently caused me to buy several more radios, always with the hope that the next radio would somehow provide better performance than my special radio.

My longstanding experience has been with vacuum tube radios.  I have used multiband radio consoles.  I have used everything from a Hallicrafters S-38 to a Collins R-390A and most everything in between.  I tried a couple of analog, multiband, solid-state portables in the 1960s and ‘70s.  I bought a Sony ICF-2010 early on and still have two of them fully functional.  For many years, the -2010s were my go-to radios.

Then, I happened to read the review of the Tecsun PL-660 in the 2012 WRTH.  The price seemed reasonable, and I decided to buy one.  From the very beginning, I was not disappointed.  Selectable sidebands and synchronous detection – not a Sony, but very good.  Further, the -660 was notably smaller and packed quite easily.  I could include a pair of earphones, a length of wire and this radio, set up away from the shack, and operate.

So why is this radio special?  It is not perfect.  But for LW, MW, SW, and FM, there is nothing I can hear on any of my radios that I can’t hear on the Tecsun PL-660.  Reception seems to be especially sensitive and clear.

I must qualify the claim above.  Normally I use external antennas.  External antennas are the great equalizers.  Properly matched they make a radio perform at its best.  Radio reviews and comparisons will often include judgements about sensitivity.  Unfortunately, many reviewers do not specify the conditions under which they tested the radio.  The reader must assume that these judgements are based on the use of stock internal antennas — most often the LW and MW ferrite loop and the SW and FM whip.  For portable radios this makes sense, as internal antennas are paramount to the radio’s transportable versatility.

Not Perfect

I will spare everyone yet another review of a radio now in its adolescent years.  I merely focus on a couple of picks I have with the PL-660.  There are others which are well documented.

Birdies

Probably the worst fault with the -660 is birdies.  There are a few along the LW spectrum but the worst by far is one which generally appears between 950 kHz and 1000 kHz in the MW band.  I have read where this is traceable to the DC-DC converter but have never found a remedy.  This nasty signal is very rich in harmonics and will replicate through the entire SW spectrum.  Further, the fundamental birdie and its harmonics tend to slowly drift upward for about an hour after the radio is turned on.  The drift accelerates with multiples of harmonics.  For example, while the fundamental birdie is creeping up 1 kHz, the second harmonic will travel 2 kHz, the third 3 kHz, and so forth.  There are many harmonics where no harm is done; however, the 4th harmonic will blaze a trail squarely through the 80-meter ham band.  Wait a while and it will drift onward but ultimately stop at some equally inconvenient location.

Poor Encoder

The PL-660 tuning encoder, as with its cousins in the -600 and the -680, is … well, very poor.  From the get-go it will jump erratically forward or backward.  This becomes worse over time, particularly with any prolonged periods of disuse.  I have not determined whether this is dirt, poor contact, or just poor design.  I have found that vigorous exercise forward and backward with the tuning knob is the best temporary remedy.  This will generally bring the encoder back to tolerable performance.

Replacement encoders are available at modest cost.  I went this route as a last resort but managed to lay up my -660 for several months having failed to make the replacement work at all on the first attempt.  A few months later with renewed determination, followed by a series of deep cleansing breaths, I reopened the radio and discovered that my mistake was just a solder bridge between two of the encoder pins.  Note to self: For the future, this surgery should only be performed by people with good vision and steady hands.  After several months of storage there was unbounded joy when the 12-year-old -660 came alive and began to tune perfectly – well as perfectly as it could.

My Mods

One of the reasons why the Tecsun PL-660 is special to me is that it is a tangible link to my tinkering past.  In former times, much satisfaction was obtained by aligning RF and IF stages, restringing dial cords, and replacing leaky capacitors.  For most tinkers, the advent of large-scale, solid-state integration and surface-mounted components has made tinkering virtually impossible.  Detailed data are scarce, parts much more specialized, and soldering skills more demanding.

The PL-660 came along at a point where vacuum tube tinkering was still within recent memory and the skills for maintaining and modifying high-tech radios had not become so intimidating.  To summarize, with just a few exceptions, today’s radios are for all practical purposes unrepairable, unmodifiable, and therefore more readily disposable.  What a pity.  The term “parted out” has entered our vocabulary, whereby a defective radio is cannibalized to provide its serviceable vital organs to its remaining siblings.

Dynamic Squelch

Briefly, the Tecsun PL-660 dynamic squelch function automatically adjusts the signal threshold based on its strength.  Ostensibly, this helps prevent the radio from being overwhelmed by noise when no signal is present while still allowing strong signals to be heard.  The “dynamic” part of the term refers to the feature turning itself on or off as the situation demands.  The downside is twofold:  a) weak signals may be totally blocked with squelch engaged; and b) the feature may oscillate on an off as a signal fades and then gets stronger.  There are several demonstrations of this on YouTube.

In 2012, a Russian radiofile managed to identify the transistor that switched the feature on and off.  By the simple expedient of grounding one of its leads, it could be permanently turned off, eliminating its drawbacks.  An optional further modification provided for the tone control switch to be repurposed to manually enable or disable the basic modification.

The relatively simple concept turned out to be rather involved surgery requiring a large metal circuit shield to be unsoldered and removed to access the transistor.  The old Yahoo PL-660 Group was abuzz with interest at the time.  Many folks were doing the modification.  Had it not been discussed so widely, I would likely have ignored it.  But being a wild, impulsive 70-year-old at the time, I had to give it a go and fortunately was successful.

Disablement of the dynamic squelch required removal of a shield on PCB

External LW and MW antennas

I do not like to be limited by the lack of an external LW/MW antenna connection.  The PL-660 has no means to switch one on.  You can easily inductively couple an AN-100/200 or Terk Advantage loop and get good results, but I wanted more.  I took the classic approach of winding a 5-turn transfer coil around the ferrite bar.  Initially I simply connected this to a twisted pair which ran out the unused hole for the wrist strap.  The twisted pair was connected to a phone jack and dangled out of the radio like a pig tail.

Pigtail used the hole in the case vacated by the wrist strap.

Sometime after my mod, Geir Laastad, LA6LU, published a paper with a much more elegant solution.  He discovered that the PL-880 used a stereo external antenna jack, the center (ring) terminal was not used, and the cumbersome pigtail could be eliminated by connecting the added transfer coil between this center terminal on the jack and the radio ground.  This necessitated use of a stereo plug to mate with the jack for connection of a LW/MW external antenna, but the jack could otherwise be used normally for SW.  I found that Tecsun used the same stereo jack approach on the -600, -660, and -680, and was able to connect the transfer coil to each radio the same way.  Geir’s paper is at https://groups.io/g/Tecsun-PL-880/files/_Tecsun_PL-880_LW_&_MW_Antenna_Mod.pdf, but you may have to request membership in the group to download it.

Enlarged fine tuning knob

One of the weak features of the -600, -660 and -680 is the fine-tuning pot.  Zero-beating a signal is a bit touchy.  The problem is exacerbated by a mechanical detent in the control’s center of rotation, that is, the point where zero beat is likely to be encountered.  I found a foam, doughnut-shaped packing spacer from a spindle of CDs had just the right internal and external diameters to slip over the fine-tuning knob and provide some added gear reduction.  By pressing the foam against the case, the effects of the detent could be mitigated.

Well, unfortunately, CDs are going the way of cassette tapes these days, so the availability of the packing spacers may not be so good.  It may be within the realm of possibility to fabricate one.

Wrist Strap

My final alteration is not so much a modification as it is a simple omission.  On the first disassembly of the -660 I omitted reinstalling the wrist strap.  IMHO, this piece of ribbon is no more useful than fender skirts on a ’57 Chevy.  Besides, it’s usually in the way.  Sometime in the murky past, this appendage made its appearance on a small portable radio.  Since then, nearly every manufacturer has felt compelled to include one.  I envision someone grabbing the radio by the strap and sashaying down the street with it dangling precariously by one’s side.  I have tried to imagine how its purpose might be inverted into a safety feature – perhaps first looping the strap around the wrist and then grabbing the radio with the hand.  But somehow, I can’t imagine anyone going to that trouble.  Maybe I’m missing something.

The wrist strap on this Realistic 12-714 AM/FM pocket radio from 1984 is hard to ignore.

The reader may be aware of other modifications to the PL-660, but mine are limited to those described above.

Epilogue

The old -660 has never been coddled.  Neither has it been subjected to the same vicissitudes as a soccer ball.  It remains a relatively handsome, finely crafted instrument still capable of soldiering on in the frontlines of the DX battle.

Is my old PL-660 a better-than-average “creampuff” off the Tecsun production line?  Does that make it special?  During the three or four months it was laid up with the encoder problem, I took the precaution of buying one of the last production units – this on the chance it might be my only opportunity of having an operational PL-660.  The newer one looks like its predecessor; it operates like its predecessor, even to the extent that it has the same birdies and the erratic encoder.  It does have the added feature of dial recalibration – a feature totally unnecessary on the original PL-660.  Somehow, it’s just not the old PL-660.  That one is special.

Maybe you have a special radio.

History of the Radio Intelligence Division Before and During World War II

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Mike, who writes:

Good afternoon, Thomas. Recalling that there have been a few postings on the SWLing Post over time on the FCC’s Radio Intelligence Division, I thought this might interest you and some readers. I just came across this (I don’t even remember what linked me to it) and have only briefly looked reviewed it, but the manuscript appears to be pretty interesting. https://www.qsl.net/w3df/sterling/ridhist.pdf 

Additional history can be found here: https://www.qsl.net/w3df/sterling/dfh1.html.

An interesting local (to me) tidbit on page 19: “It [RID] patrolled the outside of the Oak Ridge, Tennessee installation, the scene of the Manhattan Project but without the personnel knowing what atomic developments were being made inside.

73,
Mike in Knoxville,
KW1ND

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this, Mike.

The Voice of Mongolia – Then and Now

Voice of Mongolia Transmitter Site (Photo by Mark Fahey)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dan Greenall, who writes:

The Voice of Mongolia from Ulaanbaatar was always tough to hear from my location in southern Ontario, Canada. Relatively quiet conditions and a clear frequency eventually allowed me to make a recording of their interval signal and bilingual identification (presumed Mongolian and English) on November 1, 1998. This was on 12085 kHz at 1230 UTC. I was using a Panasonic RF-3100 portable receiver and a very long wire antenna.

Recording #1 November 1, 1998 1230 UTC 12085 kHz sign on in English (received in Ontario, Canada)

Audio Player

Today, reception of their programs still seem to be challenging, even with the use of remote SDR’s. Their schedule runs from 0900 to 1100 UTC on 12085 kHz, and again from 1300 to 1500 hours on 12015 kHz. Half hour English language segments begin at 0900 and 1430. Their distinctive interlude tune has remained the same through the years.

Recording #2 July 11, 2025 1300 UTC 12015 kHz sign on in Japanese (used Korean SDR)

Audio Player

Recording #3 July 12, 2025 1430 UTC 12015 kHz Chinese ending then sign on in English (used Korean SDR)

Audio Player

73

Dan Greenall, Ontario, Canada

Thank you for sharing these fine recordings, Dan!

A Vintage Radio Sparks Family Connection

Rachael Myrow discovered her father’s Telefunken Opus 7. (Photo: KQED)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor David Iurescia for sharing this touching story from KQED: “How a 1957 Vintage Radio Rekindled a Daughter’s Bond With Her Dad.”

A beautiful piece about memory, connection, and the emotional power of radio.

Read it here: https://www.kqed.org/news/12047317/how-a-1957-vintage-radio-rekindled-a-daughters-bond-with-her-dad

Can You Help Adi Identify Radio Gear from the 1957 Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition?

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Adi, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

I’m reading the book about the 1957-58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It hold many remarks of their radio operations with various antarctic bases and even with hams in Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition

So I went to Youtube, I found two contemporary films

one at 17:20, frankly I don’t think it was shot during the expedition, it looks too “un-antarcticy.”

And shorter but better quality is this:

At about 9:07 a “New Zealand’s radio sets” are mentioned

I wonder if any of the devoted readers can tell more about the radios they see in those pictures.

Best regards, Adi